Laptop users often get a raw deal when it comes to peripherals and webcams are no exception, we spent many hours trying to balance the cam on the top of the screen or playing with the pathetic little stands supplied with most cams.

Logitech like a few other companies have tackled the issues that effect laptop users with a bespoke solution, laptops have specific problems that need to be addressed by webcams, primarily space and lighting. Space is at a premium for laptop users, no point having a sleek funky laptop and a huge ungainly webcam, Logitech's quickcam pro is about the size of a packet of cigarettes and comes in a sleek metal grey effect case with adjustable arms that hang the cam from your screen.

Connection is via USB and the package comes bundled with Logitech's video companion, Yahoo IM, Videowave and photsuite 4.0, setup is almost plug and play it just requires the driver install and if you get stuck there is a manual on the CD and Logitech support is pretty good too.

Settings wise you can chose the resolution from 160 x 120 to 640 x 480 but there is far more to the settings of the Logitech quickcam in fact this is essential for the cam to operate in the varied environments of the laptop user, control over brightness, contrast, saturation, gamma and exposure is all included in the wizard. Exposure (or white balance) can be set to one of 5 preset modes to cope with the varied conditions from outdoor to fluorescent lighting an you can of course to set everything to auto if you want to be really lazy.

Performance of the Logitech quickcam is really quite impressive the white balance settings really help it cope in many situations where most webcams would fail, it even seemed to work just with the light of the screen on the laptop in an otherwise dark room, we tried this with another webcam which just showed a black screen this just goes to show how good the optics / chip in the Logitech is.

You can also use the webcam to take 1.3 mega pixel stills which is a useful add on but really when you move into photography its best left to 3 mega pixel cams, the digital zoom is quite good but you can't beat optics for doing that kind of work, the focus of the cam is adjusted by a focus ring around the lens and seemed to have quite a good focal range allowing close up image capture.

The main use will no doubt be instant messaging and trials with MSN and Yahoo worked fine, the built in microphone saves space again and we found no issues with the cam for this use, in fact with the small size good quality images and contemporary design its hard to find fault with the Logitech quickcam, so we won't!  If you want a fully featured webcam designed for laptops that really performs we think we've found it!

Logitech QuickCam for Notebooks Pro